Concentrating mainly but not exclusively on the Loire's vineyards, its vignerons and their wines along with places to eat and stay. Also covers some recently published wine books – not just from Loire. Regional Chair for Loire @Decanter's World Wine Awards since its inception.
Winner of the 2009 Wine Blog Trophy (journalist category) Salon des Vins de Loire. I have a large and expanding library of photos, particularly from the Loire – places, producers, vineyards etc. European.

2012:Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

2013 Loire vintage: Pays Nantais

2013: portrait of a tired vigneronne: with the threat of rot people

are working very long hours to get the harvest

Everywhere in the Pays Nantais there are picking machines, tractors and pickers. Many vignerons and their teams are working very long hours to get the harvest in as the threat of rot grows. In some parcels the fruit looks very good with barely a rotten grape, while in others normally vineayards on heavier ground rot is decidedly present. However, it is a interesting mixture of noble and grey rot. Also if you taste the rotten grapes the flavour for the moment remains generally clean. Fortunately the acid rot that was a major factor in 2011 does not seem to be present this year.

With a much bigger crop the potential degree are certainly lower than last year with producers reporting variations between just over 10˚ to 12˚ depending on the parcel and the yield. I suspect that flavour ripeness as come before high sugars. The acidity levels remain quite high. For those with very high yields the degrees are likely to be below 10˚, so 2013 may well be a bumper years for France's sugar producers.

The forecast for this week, especially the weekend, is not good, so producers here will be aiming to get as much in as quickly as possible. It is raining at the moment. Many producers started picking around Wednesday of last week.

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